2 Nitegowns

When they were young, Dad would buy my Mom two nightgowns for every holiday or celebration.  When my sister Terry was old enough to drive, Dad would give her money and she and I would go to the Style Shop in Piedmont to buy the gifts.  Life has changed but the love and care remains.  Mom will be 87 on Friday.  Next Tuesday is their 66th wedding anniversary.  I hope Dad is able to accompany Mom to Peebles this week to buy something she likes.  

Photo taken August 26, 2012. 

The dress form is an old needle card I had stored in my sewing machine drawer.

The journaling block is a digital image from Basic Grey.  I printed it with the journaling on blue vellum.

Fond Abetter

As loving partners, Bob and I plan fun things to do whenever we're together.

These photos were taken 2 weeks ago on the Monongalia "Upper" River Trail about 5 miles from home. The weather was rather fall-like for August.

The eyelet like borders on the sides of the cardstock are digital images.  I first added my journaling to the page, then added the border strips and printed.

I shaded the border with colored pencils before adhering my photos, fancy cuts and alphas--finishing with some splatters of paint.

Have a great day!

Stand up and smile

This week at work I gave the pep talk to my staff. It's the day before the student onslaught and summer as we know it is over.  My talk was about taking care of oneself, staying positive, and being prepared.  I do a pretty good job at that.

What's tough is negativity and people that make fun.  How do I overcome that?  During the day I work, work, work.  At home, I create, create, create.  

Bob's my ultimate support.  He provides the romantic escapes which keep me going. . . another layout in the making!

 I loved the effect I got when I added the "Cutout" filter in Photoshop to me photo:

So tonight I will try to get 7 hours of sleep and tomorrow stand up a little taller!

Flowers by the Sea

This layout features pictures from Greg and Michelle's honeymoon in Istanbul on Day 3.

Greg titled the picture of the flowers on the banks of the Bosphorus, "Flowers by the sea".  During the reign of Sultan Abudulhamid II, the Yildiz Park was walled and only for the palace dwellers.  Now the beautiful garden complex is public with flowers, plants and trees gathered from every part of the world dating from the Ottoman era.  That's Michelle looking at the  panoramic view of the Bosphorus.  May 2012

 

I printed my journaling directly onto the 12 X 12 transparency in the same shade of blue.  (I practiced first on a plain sheet of 12 X 12 paper to get the journaling line up where I wanted it.)  To get the journaling to show on the black patterned background paper, I added white acrylic paint to the back of the transparency.  Because the edges of the layout were covered, I was able to staple the transparency to the background paper without seeing the staples.  I love all the elements combined with Greg's lovely photos.

Rings

 

Their wedding rings are unique to Greg and Michelle.  The moving gear rings that turn in unison when the outer rims are spun, are perfect for two engineers.  May 2012

Here's an ad featuring the unique rings:

Beartown State Park

Beartown State Park is an area of massive fragmented boulders, nearly vertical cliffs and deep crevasses. Hidden with the rocks is the beginning of a story that really has no ending. . . the formation of rocks and their gradual destruction by the forces of nature; only to be incorporated into new rocks later.

Chris suggested we visit this state park in southeastern West Virginia after he and friends did when staying at the Josephs' cabin near Greenbank. The board walk circled through the rocks and trees. The weather was rainy but we carried a big umbrella we could share and enjoy the adventure. 

 I modeled this layout after Jenni Bowlin's "Magpie" paper. I took a chance and printed my script on a textured specialty sand colored paper which absorbed the ink well and did not jam in the printer! The embellishments were scanned from Jenni's paper, then sized, printed on cardstock and soaked in a walnut ink before adhering to my layout. A little color wash spray and acrylic paint splatters and voila! 

 Another little trick I like: Before printing my photos, I fill the background of my paper with a dark color (on these I used a dark brown), then added a white "stroke" to my photos.

Backroads

We had so much fun on our overnight trip to Beartown State Park and historic Lewisburg. 400 miles on West Virginia back roads, stopping wherever we saw a sign or pretty scenery. These are the moments to remember. August, 2012

Droop Mountain

Droop Mountain is a small mountain in the Allegheny range of southeast West Virginia.  It was the scene of one of West Virginia's most important battles during the Civil War.  Droop Mountain formed a barrier to north-south passage along the west bank of the Greenbrier River, blocking troop movements.  A determined Union attack on November 6, 1863 drove off Confederate defenders.

The rain made our visit even more cozy.  The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) built the structures in 1930.

The Confederate Cemetery was covered in mounds of green moss with no solders' names.  The texture paste symbol at the bottom of my layout was meant to depict the moss.

Slatyfork

The owner of Sharp's Country Store kidded me that he'd never heard of Morgantown.  I replied I'd never heard of Slatyfork.  We passed very few businesses on our trip through southeastern West Virginia, so in passing by this store, we decided to turn around.  Are we glad we did!  

I'd taken a few photos outside when Bob said, "come look at this!"  Across the road there was a covered bridge with a sign that read "Sharp's Kissing Bridge".  The owner told us his Uncle who gave him the land collected pictures of covered bridges.  He told his nephew he always wanted a red covered bridge.  The bridge was built and the uncle now rests eternally in the family plot on the other side. 

Of course we had to mark the occasion with a kiss since "bridges don't talk"!.  August 2012

The Sharps needle advertisement was purchased in the store.

I was delighted to find these vintage buttons and purchased, along with the needle pack, for only $6.  I think the display cards are as sweet as the buttons!

Seems the owner was not as much into "making money" as he was meeting people and hearing their stories.  He showed us these vintage "scrapbook pages" a customer gave him and said a little girl had made them many years ago.  The furniture and people were fancy cut from magazines and glued to the paper.  He thought they were "too nice" to throw away.  I agreed!

Making Z-fold Layouts

When I have a lots of pictures I want to scrap, I sometimes make these Z-fold layouts that unfold to 30 inches.  My technique is published in this month's issue of Scrapbooking.com.

Select a background sheet of paper (heavier stock) the size of your page protector.

Make a template for the foldouts on white practice sheets of paper.  Cut a smaller base for the back of the foldout.

Cut 2 more sheets the same height for each of the z-folds..

Determine 1/2 the width of the base.

Make 2 z-folds in each side sheet that size.

Leave a side piece to adhere under the base to anchor the side sheets securely.

Glue the foldout to the background cardstock.

Use the dummy sheet to determine the size and placement of the photographs and journaling block.  Print and adhere photos.  Add embellishments.

To make the page interactive in the scrapbook, I cut a window in the page protector as follows:

Mark the page protector using an erasable China marker.

Cut the page protector using an x-acto knife on the marks.

The page then opens while in the scrapbook.

And stores neatly in the closed scrapbook.

Because these foldouts can be made to fit any size scrapbook using the same technique, I did not give specific dimensions.

Be sure and check out the You Tube Scrapbooking.com made using my technique!

They have been very kind to publish three of my layouts and are looking for artist submissions monthly.

Turkey

Greg's description of Honeymoon photos Day 2:  "Mosques!  Mosques everywhere!  The Grand Bazaar, Aqueducts, Turkish Coffee."

I loved the picture Greg took of the after dinner coffee with the Blue Mosque reflecting in the background.

I mimicked the lights inside the mosque with a little gold bling on the paper

I was so please to discover the laser cut word I purchased at GASC Chantilly features an aqueduct and mosque like in Greg's pictures.

2012

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